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www.sname.org/sname/mt January 2013 ? Engage design consultants who have a proven track record both of designing your type of ship and of supporting the newbuilding process in an ecient way. ? Get early input into the design from the most experienced people in your operation. ? Write a speci?cation with sucient detail to avoid contractual con?icts later. ? Develop and include a makers list? using a ?eet management approach and dont be tempted to go to new designs unless you are sure it will work or your risks will be fully covered. ? Build into the contract the cost of maker-recommended spare parts. ? Budget with a contingency based on the sum of all uncertainties and consider who really carries the ?nancial risk if something goes wrong. ? Manage uncertainties to bring your project in on time and under budget. ? Ensure that the signed contract references the latest drawings, speci?cations, and any detailed lists that describe in sucient detail what your expectations are at time of signing. ? Pay your lawyer up front to thoroughly review your contract before signing. ? Engage the most experienced site team members you can ?nd and empower them to make decisions and to ?nd ways to work eciently. ? Keep quality, health, safety, and environment at the top of the agenda by making sure the yard you select is truly committed to following ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001. ? Consider auditing the key processes related to resource management and product realization. ? Make certain you have sucient depth of knowledge of the relevant class rules on the site team so that you can make a stronger case to the yard if you are not satis?ed with the quality of workmanship or with a system design. ? Do not install anything in the ship unless you know it has ?rst been properly tested. ? Identify the people on the yards team who are the system integrators. ? Agree with the site team that they will sail with the vessel as crew for a number of trips to see the project to successful completion and full operation. ? Set up the vessel with a fully implemented planned maintenance system to your ?eet standard as part of the building process and give full support to the resources that must achieve this task. ? Dont wear out your team by not having sucient people involved, but do not over-do it either as this will slow down good decision making and will be costly. ? Treat the yard as a true partner. hanger with minimum distance between the overboard sheaves, which helps ensure that the umbilical cannot come slack on the winch when the ROV is close to the vessel and cause damage to the cable. Building in Norway Norwegian cold weather is extreme and logistics can be challenging, and this requires excellent planning and coordination together with the shipyard. e ves- sels examined here had more or less all of the deck equipment as owner furnished equipment (OFE). Late delivery of OFE leads to contractual conicts and pos- sible delays, and in times of high industry activity, a clear focus on supply chain management is a critical success factor. People involved in shipbuilding on Norways west coast are hard working people with a no-nonsense approach. Norway is a country where, if you get some- thing wrong, costs can easily escalate rapidly. Getting it right the rst time is essential. Site quality supervision is no easier in Norway than in any other part of the world, and an owners team must be highly vigilant during the build process and raise issues with the yard in a timely manner. If a problem does not get recognized before testing, it can easily cre- ate delays, and the cost to rectify an issue can increase contractual tensions. At Fugro, our team was made up of an experienced master, a chief engineer, an electrician, instrumentation and mechanical technicians, and in the last six months, a chief steward. e teams followed the building, test- ing, and sea trials and went on to crew the vessels on the rst oshore projects. Being part of a team working on a project like this is a great experience, and the long-term friendships based on mutual respect that comes out of solving an endless stream of problems and issues is hard to nd in other jobs these days. e author is very fortunate to have been responsible for these builds and to have gained valuable experience and knowledge working together with fellow shipbuilding professionals. MTMartin Hartland is divisional manager with Fugro USA in Houston, Texas. DOING IT RIGHT Following are some of the lessons learned by the author during the course of his work on Fugros C-class vessel projects.